Identifying a soft clay improvement strategy is a main challenging in highway construction projects due
to the various conditions involved. Hence, the objective of this paper is to present a Decision Support
System (DSS) to select the optimum soft clay improvement technique for this type of projects. Value
Engineering (VE) is integrated with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for the proposed (DSS). Using
the AHP provides a robust means of identifying the relative importance of any criteria or factors for soft
clay improvement alternatives. The scope of this study includes four of the most commonly used techniques
for soft clay improvement: soil replacement, pre-loading, vertical drains, and the construction
of embankments on piles. The proposed methodology was verified using four case studies of highways
under construction in northern Egypt. The results show that the proposed (DSS) successfully predicted
the optimum soft clay improvement technique in three out of the four cases.
Effectiveness of using Geotextiles in Flexible Pavements and Life-Cycle Cost ...IJMTST Journal
Using geotextiles in between the pavement layers (generally at the interface of subgrade and sub-base) to stabilize weak subgrades has been a well-accepted practice over the past few decades. However, from an economical point of view, a complete life cycle cost analysis (LCCA), which includes not only costs to agencies but also costs to users, is urgently needed to assess the benefits of using geotextile in flexible pavement. Two comparative methods were used to quantify the improvements of using geotextiles in pavements. One is Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) and the other is Economic Analysis. LCCA is a tool which is generally used after the agency has taken decision to implement the project and seeking to determine the most cost-effective means to accomplish the project's objectives. Unlike LCCA, EA considers the benefits of an improvement as well as its costs and therefore can be used to compare design alternatives that do not yield identical benefits, as well as to compare projects that accomplish different objectives. In this study, a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis framework was developed and used to quantify the benefits of using geotextile at subgrade level in economic terms. For this, a case study of Dhanbad city in Jharkhand was selected where six roads of different hierarchy are being developed with World Bank funding. As per the soil and material investigations, the CBR value of existing subgrade soil was 4%. However, after using geotextile at subgrade level the equivalent strength was found to be around 8%. Forming both as two alternative case scenarios, both Economic Analysis (using HDM-IV developed by the World Bank) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis was conducted. The study concludes that geotextile layer plays a key role in increasing the pavement CBR value from 4% to 8%. Additionally, it also results in economic benefits as increase of average 1%-1.5% in EIRR value can be noted as compared to the pavement without geotextile layer. The results of LCCA shows that initial construction cost of the alternative with 4% CBR (without geotextile layer) as well as life cycle cost is more than the corresponding cost for the second alternative with 8% CBR (with geotextile layer).Hence, the second alternative (CBR 8%-with geotextile layer) is recommended based on both Economic Analysis as well as LCCA. Hence, for an optimum road flexible pavement design with geotextile incorporated in the system, a life cycle cost analysis that includes user cost as well as economic analysis must be performed. ABSTRACT
An Approach for Ready Mixed Concrete Selection for Construction Companies thr...A Makwana
One of the most useful method for selecting a project that is becoming more and more important is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This method was developed by Dr. Thomas L. Saaty in 1970s as a tool to help with solving technical and managerial problems. Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) industry is continuously growing all over the world and India is not an exception to it. The pace of mechanization in the past was very slow due to the availability of cheap and abundant labor, lack of capital investment and the highly fragmented nature of the construction sector. The Ready Mixed Concrete in India on commercial basis started in 1994 and has achieved about 2% conversion from the site-mixed concrete by the year 2001. It is heartening that the acceptability of Ready mixed concrete is increasing though at a slow pace. The entry of foreign firms and major Indian cement producers in this field are likely to provide the necessary boost to this industry in the future. The growth prospect of Ready-mixed concrete is enormous, provided requisite support is given by the regulatory authorities, consumers and decision makers. At the present, the cost differential between Ready-mixed concrete and site mixed concrete is proving a major constraint in its growth. This problem will be resolved with the increasing awareness about the advantages of RMC by the end consumers.
Diagnose the causes of cost deviation in highway constructionFaiq M. S. Al-Zwainy
The aim of this study is identifying and diagnosing the causes of construction project failure by using different project management process groups. These groups were initiation process group, planning process group, design process group, contract process group, executing and monitoring process group, and close process group. Also, the relative importance of the causes of construction project failure was investigated. Three techniques were used in this study: Ishikawa diagrams, Pareto diagrams, and 5-why techniques. The results were generally identified and diagnosed thirty-five causes of the construction project failure; however, only twenty-three of the causes were the most important. The majority of causes (thirteen causes) were obtained by using executing and monitoring project management process group. Seven causes were obtained by using contract project management process group. In addition, fewer causes (only three causes) were obtained by using initiation project management process group.
An Automated Input Data Management Approach for Discrete Event Simulation App...IJERA Editor
Slipforming operation’s linearity is a source of planning complications, and operation is usually subjected to bottlenecks at any point, so careful planning is required in order to achieve success. On the other hand, Discrete-event simulation concepts can be applied to simulate and analyze construction operations and to efficiently support construction scheduling. Nevertheless, preparation of input data for construction simulation is very challenging, time consuming and human prone-error source. Therefore, to enhance the benefits of using DES in construction scheduling, this study proposes an integrated module to establish a framework for automating the generation of time schedules and decision support for Slipform construction projects, particularly through the project feasibility study phase by using data exchange between project data stored in an Intermediate database, DES and Scheduling software. Using the stored information, proposed system creates construction tasks attribute [e.g. activities durations, material quantities and resources amount], then DES uses all the given information to create a proposal for the construction schedule automatically. This research is considered a demonstration of a flexible Slipform project modeling, rapid scenario-based planning and schedule generation approach that may be of interest to both practitioners and researchers.
Effectiveness of using Geotextiles in Flexible Pavements and Life-Cycle Cost ...IJMTST Journal
Using geotextiles in between the pavement layers (generally at the interface of subgrade and sub-base) to stabilize weak subgrades has been a well-accepted practice over the past few decades. However, from an economical point of view, a complete life cycle cost analysis (LCCA), which includes not only costs to agencies but also costs to users, is urgently needed to assess the benefits of using geotextile in flexible pavement. Two comparative methods were used to quantify the improvements of using geotextiles in pavements. One is Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) and the other is Economic Analysis. LCCA is a tool which is generally used after the agency has taken decision to implement the project and seeking to determine the most cost-effective means to accomplish the project's objectives. Unlike LCCA, EA considers the benefits of an improvement as well as its costs and therefore can be used to compare design alternatives that do not yield identical benefits, as well as to compare projects that accomplish different objectives. In this study, a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis framework was developed and used to quantify the benefits of using geotextile at subgrade level in economic terms. For this, a case study of Dhanbad city in Jharkhand was selected where six roads of different hierarchy are being developed with World Bank funding. As per the soil and material investigations, the CBR value of existing subgrade soil was 4%. However, after using geotextile at subgrade level the equivalent strength was found to be around 8%. Forming both as two alternative case scenarios, both Economic Analysis (using HDM-IV developed by the World Bank) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis was conducted. The study concludes that geotextile layer plays a key role in increasing the pavement CBR value from 4% to 8%. Additionally, it also results in economic benefits as increase of average 1%-1.5% in EIRR value can be noted as compared to the pavement without geotextile layer. The results of LCCA shows that initial construction cost of the alternative with 4% CBR (without geotextile layer) as well as life cycle cost is more than the corresponding cost for the second alternative with 8% CBR (with geotextile layer).Hence, the second alternative (CBR 8%-with geotextile layer) is recommended based on both Economic Analysis as well as LCCA. Hence, for an optimum road flexible pavement design with geotextile incorporated in the system, a life cycle cost analysis that includes user cost as well as economic analysis must be performed. ABSTRACT
An Approach for Ready Mixed Concrete Selection for Construction Companies thr...A Makwana
One of the most useful method for selecting a project that is becoming more and more important is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This method was developed by Dr. Thomas L. Saaty in 1970s as a tool to help with solving technical and managerial problems. Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) industry is continuously growing all over the world and India is not an exception to it. The pace of mechanization in the past was very slow due to the availability of cheap and abundant labor, lack of capital investment and the highly fragmented nature of the construction sector. The Ready Mixed Concrete in India on commercial basis started in 1994 and has achieved about 2% conversion from the site-mixed concrete by the year 2001. It is heartening that the acceptability of Ready mixed concrete is increasing though at a slow pace. The entry of foreign firms and major Indian cement producers in this field are likely to provide the necessary boost to this industry in the future. The growth prospect of Ready-mixed concrete is enormous, provided requisite support is given by the regulatory authorities, consumers and decision makers. At the present, the cost differential between Ready-mixed concrete and site mixed concrete is proving a major constraint in its growth. This problem will be resolved with the increasing awareness about the advantages of RMC by the end consumers.
Diagnose the causes of cost deviation in highway constructionFaiq M. S. Al-Zwainy
The aim of this study is identifying and diagnosing the causes of construction project failure by using different project management process groups. These groups were initiation process group, planning process group, design process group, contract process group, executing and monitoring process group, and close process group. Also, the relative importance of the causes of construction project failure was investigated. Three techniques were used in this study: Ishikawa diagrams, Pareto diagrams, and 5-why techniques. The results were generally identified and diagnosed thirty-five causes of the construction project failure; however, only twenty-three of the causes were the most important. The majority of causes (thirteen causes) were obtained by using executing and monitoring project management process group. Seven causes were obtained by using contract project management process group. In addition, fewer causes (only three causes) were obtained by using initiation project management process group.
An Automated Input Data Management Approach for Discrete Event Simulation App...IJERA Editor
Slipforming operation’s linearity is a source of planning complications, and operation is usually subjected to bottlenecks at any point, so careful planning is required in order to achieve success. On the other hand, Discrete-event simulation concepts can be applied to simulate and analyze construction operations and to efficiently support construction scheduling. Nevertheless, preparation of input data for construction simulation is very challenging, time consuming and human prone-error source. Therefore, to enhance the benefits of using DES in construction scheduling, this study proposes an integrated module to establish a framework for automating the generation of time schedules and decision support for Slipform construction projects, particularly through the project feasibility study phase by using data exchange between project data stored in an Intermediate database, DES and Scheduling software. Using the stored information, proposed system creates construction tasks attribute [e.g. activities durations, material quantities and resources amount], then DES uses all the given information to create a proposal for the construction schedule automatically. This research is considered a demonstration of a flexible Slipform project modeling, rapid scenario-based planning and schedule generation approach that may be of interest to both practitioners and researchers.
Embodied Energy Optimization of Prestressed Concrete Slab Bridge Decks► Victor Yepes
This paper presents one approach to the analysis and design of post-tensioned cast-in-place concrete slab bridge decks. A Simulated Annealing algorithm is applied to two objective functions: (i) the economic cost; and (ii) the embodied energy at different stages of production materials, transport, and construction. The problem involved 33 discrete design variables: five geometrical ones dealing with the thickness of the slab, the inner and exterior web width, and two flange thicknesses; concrete type; prestressing cables, and 26 variables for the reinforcement set-up. The comparison of the results obtained shows two different optimum families, which indicates that the traditional criteria of economic optimization leads to inefficient designs considering the embodied energy. The results indicate that the objectives are not competing functions, and that optimum energy designs are close to the optimum cost designs. The analysis also showed that the savings of each kW h of energy consumed carries an extra cost of 0.49€. The best cost solution presents 5.3% more embodied energy. The best energy solution is 9.7% more expensive than that of minor cost. In addition, the results have showed that the best cost solutions are not the best energy solutions.
Two design methods were used to quantify the improvements of using geotextiles in pavements. In this study, a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis framework was developed and used to quantify the initial and the future cost of 25 representative low volume road design alternatives. A 50 year analysis cycle was used to compute the cost-effectiveness ratio when geotextiled is used for the design methods. The effects of three flexible pavement design parameters were evaluated; and their impact on the results was investigated.
The job structure of the bottom (lower Structure) has the weight of the work
amounted to 8% of the total cost of the construction of high
delay in implementation
analysis conducted by using the Relative Important Index (RII) Obtained 15 influential
factors ie Comparison of measurement and prediction, the adequacy of the plan
Specifications, fix and schedules and plans, instrumentation and
monitoring, evaluation of static pole Data , Data collection, soil conditions, scope of
work, Issues, accuracy of data, problem identification, Solution Optimization,
validation projects, Improve communication, skilled workforce. While the resu
the analysis of the case study foundations work efficiency powerboats Obtained results
using PERT of 4.85% and optimization for quality using Six Sigma of 99. 56%.
Application of Value Engineering in Commercial Building Projectsnitinrane33
The current construction industry conditions have entailed the use of rational method and techniques and
research and application of new techniques by utilizing advancements in technology in the field of production as well as in
every field. Value Engineering is a proven management technique that can make valuable contributions to value
enhancement and cost reduction in construction industry. Value Engineering is one of the most effective techniques
known to identify and eliminate unnecessary costs in product design, testing, manufacturing, construction, operations,
maintenance, data, procedures and practices. The methodology is composed of three main stages. The first stage is the
Pre-Study of the Value Engineering. The purpose of this stage is to plan and organize the value study. Value Engineering
is the systematic application of recognized techniques that identify the functions of the product or service, creatively
establish the worth of those functions, and provide only the necessary functions to meet the required performance at the
lowest overall cost. Value Engineering focuses on accomplishing the required functions at the lowest overall cost. It helps
in eliminating or minimizing wastage of material, time, and unnecessary cost, which improves value to the customer. The
second stage is the Value Study which is the core of Value Engineering study and it is composed of five phases, the
Information phase, Function Analysis Phase, Creative Phase, Evaluation Phase and the Presentation phase. All phases
and steps perform sequentially. Such sequence of the methodology is expected to assist in logical and systematic flow of
the process to achieve the targets of the VE study. The third stage is the Post Study. The objective during post-study
activities is to assure the implementation of the approved value study change recommendations. In this study, how the
principles of Value Engineering are applied in construction projects is explained, and by taking case study on commercial
building as the sample project, practices of Value Engineering in this project are described.
Tc iv submited paper risk analysis and managements large epc projectsPALLA NARASIMHUDU
"Risk analysis and management -large EPC projects" , I prepared a paper ans submitted for Technology conclave Summit -TC IV , L&T Has giving opportunity of his group of employees to explore their skills by creating plat form in the name of Technology conclave and celebrating it's every year .In 2015 summit ,as a employee i submitted this paper and was selected for final presentation
Time-Cost Trade-Off Analysis in a Construction Project Problem: Case Studyijceronline
In construction project, cost and time reduction is crucial in today’s competitive market respect. Cost and time along with quality of the project play vital role in construction project’s decision. Reduction in cost and time of projects has increased the demand of construction project in the recent years. Trade-off between different conflicting aspects of projects is one of the challenging problems often faced by construction companies. Time, cost and quality of project delivery are the important aspects of each project which lead researchers in developing time-cost trade-off model. These models are serving as important management tool for overcoming the limitation of critical path methods frequently used by company. The objective of time-cost trade-off analysis is to reduce the original project duration with possible least total cost. In this paper critical path method with a heuristic method is used to find out the crash durations and crash costs. A regression analysis is performed to identify the relationship between the times and costs in order to formulize an optimization problem model. The problem is then solved by Matlab program which yields a least cost of $60937 with duration 129.50 ≈130 days. Applying this approach, the result obtained is satisfactory, which is an indication of usefulness of this approach in construction project problems.
The project provides an insight on pavement Management Systems.PMS helps in making informed decisions enabling the maintenance of the network in a serviceable and safe condition at a minimum cost to both the agency and the road users. To adequately meet this requirement, well-documented information is essential to make defensible decisions on the basis of sound principles of engineering and management
Risk Contingency Evaluation in International Construction Projects (Real Case...IJLT EMAS
Most construction companies operating in the global construction industry would undertake international projects to maximize their profitability through benefitting from the new attractive markets and reducing the dependence upon local markets. As a result of the nature of construction works the company and project's conditions actually include massive risks and uncertainty. So the risk sensitivity of projects costs should be assessed in a realistic manner. The comprehensive risk assessment method was introduced as a decision making supporting tool to be employed for international constructive projects through applying a risk model that will aid the procedures of evaluating risks and prioritizing such projects and assessing risk contingency value. Both the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), applied for evaluating risk factors weight (likelihood), and FUZZY LOGIC approach, applied for evaluating risk factors influence (Risk consequences) employing software aids such as EXECL and MATLAB software, were used for developing the risk model. The reliability of the developed software has been verified by applications on a real construction projects. The proposed methodology and decision support tool have been proved to be reliable for the estimation of cost overrun resulting from risk on basis of actual final reports of projects. Six actual case studies from different countries were chosen to determine the highest risk factors and to implement the designed models, test their results and evaluate risk cost impact. The proposed models result showed that: the highest and lowest risk contingency percentage of 48 % and 16 % were in Project no (5), (6) respectively in Egypt. On the other hand, the projects no (1, 2, 4,7) in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Libya and Jordan, the risk contingency of 29%, 39%, 20% and 28% respectively. The actual results are close to those of the proposed program.
Predicting (Nk) factor of (CPT) test using (GP): Comparative Study of MEPX & GN7Ahmed Ebid
Static cone penetration test (CPT) is a broadly satisfactory and dependable geotechnical in-situ apparatus that gives brisk and honest substantial measure of data about soil classification, stratification and properties. Un-drained shear strength of clay (cu) is one of the principle soil parameters that could be sensibly evaluated from the (CPT) results, as it is specifically connected to the tip resistance through the experimental cone factor (Nk). Earlier researches showed that (Nk) value depends on type of soil, nature and stress history conditions and many other variables. Construction development in some locations with thick deposits of soft to very soft clays motivates extensive researches to define the reasonable value of the (Nk) factor for such types of clay. The performed study concentrated on utilizing the genetic programming technique (GP) to predict (Nk) value of clay using the consistency limits that can be easily determined in the laboratory. A set of 102 records were gathered from the CPT site investigations and corresponding consistency limits and other physical properties experiments, were divided into training set of 72 records and validation set of 30 records. Both (GN7) & (MEPX) software were used to apply (GP) on the available data. Four trials for each software with different chromosome lengths were performed to correlate the (Nk) factor with the clay consistency limits, water content (wc) and unit weight (γ) using training data set, then, the produced relations were tested using the validation data set. The four generated formulas using (GN7) showed accuracies ranging between 93% and 97% and coefficient of determination (R2) ranging between 0.7 and 0.9, while the other four formulas form (MEPX) showed accuracy not exceeding 95% and coefficient of determination (R2) ranging between 0.45 and 0.75.
15 experimental study for strengthening of rc rectangular columns with anchor...Ahmed Ebid
Debonding between CFRP sheets and concrete surface is one of the most important modes of failure. The common solution to
prevent this mode of failure is to extend the CFRP sheets by enough length to avoid debonding. A more advanced technique is to anchor the CFRP sheets to the concrete element using either steel or CFRP anchors. The aim of this research is to study the effect of using CFRP anchors on the capacity of concentric and eccentric RC columns. In order to achieve that goal, ten specimens of RC columns divided into two sets were tested. The first set was tested under concentric load, while the other set was tested under eccentric load. Each set had one control sample, while the other four samples were wrapped with CFRP bands. Two of the wrapped samples were anchored and the others were not. The spacing between CFRP wraps was varied between 80 and 200 mm. The results showed that the concentric and eccentric capacity of the sample increased with decreasing the spacing between CFRP bands as long as the eccentricity is small enough to cause
compression failure mode. But for samples with tension failure caused by large eccentricity, the CFRP bands have no effect on the capacity. It was also noted that anchors have no significant effect on the axial capacity of the samples
More Related Content
Similar to 17 decision support system for optimum soft clay improvement technique
Embodied Energy Optimization of Prestressed Concrete Slab Bridge Decks► Victor Yepes
This paper presents one approach to the analysis and design of post-tensioned cast-in-place concrete slab bridge decks. A Simulated Annealing algorithm is applied to two objective functions: (i) the economic cost; and (ii) the embodied energy at different stages of production materials, transport, and construction. The problem involved 33 discrete design variables: five geometrical ones dealing with the thickness of the slab, the inner and exterior web width, and two flange thicknesses; concrete type; prestressing cables, and 26 variables for the reinforcement set-up. The comparison of the results obtained shows two different optimum families, which indicates that the traditional criteria of economic optimization leads to inefficient designs considering the embodied energy. The results indicate that the objectives are not competing functions, and that optimum energy designs are close to the optimum cost designs. The analysis also showed that the savings of each kW h of energy consumed carries an extra cost of 0.49€. The best cost solution presents 5.3% more embodied energy. The best energy solution is 9.7% more expensive than that of minor cost. In addition, the results have showed that the best cost solutions are not the best energy solutions.
Two design methods were used to quantify the improvements of using geotextiles in pavements. In this study, a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis framework was developed and used to quantify the initial and the future cost of 25 representative low volume road design alternatives. A 50 year analysis cycle was used to compute the cost-effectiveness ratio when geotextiled is used for the design methods. The effects of three flexible pavement design parameters were evaluated; and their impact on the results was investigated.
The job structure of the bottom (lower Structure) has the weight of the work
amounted to 8% of the total cost of the construction of high
delay in implementation
analysis conducted by using the Relative Important Index (RII) Obtained 15 influential
factors ie Comparison of measurement and prediction, the adequacy of the plan
Specifications, fix and schedules and plans, instrumentation and
monitoring, evaluation of static pole Data , Data collection, soil conditions, scope of
work, Issues, accuracy of data, problem identification, Solution Optimization,
validation projects, Improve communication, skilled workforce. While the resu
the analysis of the case study foundations work efficiency powerboats Obtained results
using PERT of 4.85% and optimization for quality using Six Sigma of 99. 56%.
Application of Value Engineering in Commercial Building Projectsnitinrane33
The current construction industry conditions have entailed the use of rational method and techniques and
research and application of new techniques by utilizing advancements in technology in the field of production as well as in
every field. Value Engineering is a proven management technique that can make valuable contributions to value
enhancement and cost reduction in construction industry. Value Engineering is one of the most effective techniques
known to identify and eliminate unnecessary costs in product design, testing, manufacturing, construction, operations,
maintenance, data, procedures and practices. The methodology is composed of three main stages. The first stage is the
Pre-Study of the Value Engineering. The purpose of this stage is to plan and organize the value study. Value Engineering
is the systematic application of recognized techniques that identify the functions of the product or service, creatively
establish the worth of those functions, and provide only the necessary functions to meet the required performance at the
lowest overall cost. Value Engineering focuses on accomplishing the required functions at the lowest overall cost. It helps
in eliminating or minimizing wastage of material, time, and unnecessary cost, which improves value to the customer. The
second stage is the Value Study which is the core of Value Engineering study and it is composed of five phases, the
Information phase, Function Analysis Phase, Creative Phase, Evaluation Phase and the Presentation phase. All phases
and steps perform sequentially. Such sequence of the methodology is expected to assist in logical and systematic flow of
the process to achieve the targets of the VE study. The third stage is the Post Study. The objective during post-study
activities is to assure the implementation of the approved value study change recommendations. In this study, how the
principles of Value Engineering are applied in construction projects is explained, and by taking case study on commercial
building as the sample project, practices of Value Engineering in this project are described.
Tc iv submited paper risk analysis and managements large epc projectsPALLA NARASIMHUDU
"Risk analysis and management -large EPC projects" , I prepared a paper ans submitted for Technology conclave Summit -TC IV , L&T Has giving opportunity of his group of employees to explore their skills by creating plat form in the name of Technology conclave and celebrating it's every year .In 2015 summit ,as a employee i submitted this paper and was selected for final presentation
Time-Cost Trade-Off Analysis in a Construction Project Problem: Case Studyijceronline
In construction project, cost and time reduction is crucial in today’s competitive market respect. Cost and time along with quality of the project play vital role in construction project’s decision. Reduction in cost and time of projects has increased the demand of construction project in the recent years. Trade-off between different conflicting aspects of projects is one of the challenging problems often faced by construction companies. Time, cost and quality of project delivery are the important aspects of each project which lead researchers in developing time-cost trade-off model. These models are serving as important management tool for overcoming the limitation of critical path methods frequently used by company. The objective of time-cost trade-off analysis is to reduce the original project duration with possible least total cost. In this paper critical path method with a heuristic method is used to find out the crash durations and crash costs. A regression analysis is performed to identify the relationship between the times and costs in order to formulize an optimization problem model. The problem is then solved by Matlab program which yields a least cost of $60937 with duration 129.50 ≈130 days. Applying this approach, the result obtained is satisfactory, which is an indication of usefulness of this approach in construction project problems.
The project provides an insight on pavement Management Systems.PMS helps in making informed decisions enabling the maintenance of the network in a serviceable and safe condition at a minimum cost to both the agency and the road users. To adequately meet this requirement, well-documented information is essential to make defensible decisions on the basis of sound principles of engineering and management
Risk Contingency Evaluation in International Construction Projects (Real Case...IJLT EMAS
Most construction companies operating in the global construction industry would undertake international projects to maximize their profitability through benefitting from the new attractive markets and reducing the dependence upon local markets. As a result of the nature of construction works the company and project's conditions actually include massive risks and uncertainty. So the risk sensitivity of projects costs should be assessed in a realistic manner. The comprehensive risk assessment method was introduced as a decision making supporting tool to be employed for international constructive projects through applying a risk model that will aid the procedures of evaluating risks and prioritizing such projects and assessing risk contingency value. Both the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), applied for evaluating risk factors weight (likelihood), and FUZZY LOGIC approach, applied for evaluating risk factors influence (Risk consequences) employing software aids such as EXECL and MATLAB software, were used for developing the risk model. The reliability of the developed software has been verified by applications on a real construction projects. The proposed methodology and decision support tool have been proved to be reliable for the estimation of cost overrun resulting from risk on basis of actual final reports of projects. Six actual case studies from different countries were chosen to determine the highest risk factors and to implement the designed models, test their results and evaluate risk cost impact. The proposed models result showed that: the highest and lowest risk contingency percentage of 48 % and 16 % were in Project no (5), (6) respectively in Egypt. On the other hand, the projects no (1, 2, 4,7) in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Libya and Jordan, the risk contingency of 29%, 39%, 20% and 28% respectively. The actual results are close to those of the proposed program.
Predicting (Nk) factor of (CPT) test using (GP): Comparative Study of MEPX & GN7Ahmed Ebid
Static cone penetration test (CPT) is a broadly satisfactory and dependable geotechnical in-situ apparatus that gives brisk and honest substantial measure of data about soil classification, stratification and properties. Un-drained shear strength of clay (cu) is one of the principle soil parameters that could be sensibly evaluated from the (CPT) results, as it is specifically connected to the tip resistance through the experimental cone factor (Nk). Earlier researches showed that (Nk) value depends on type of soil, nature and stress history conditions and many other variables. Construction development in some locations with thick deposits of soft to very soft clays motivates extensive researches to define the reasonable value of the (Nk) factor for such types of clay. The performed study concentrated on utilizing the genetic programming technique (GP) to predict (Nk) value of clay using the consistency limits that can be easily determined in the laboratory. A set of 102 records were gathered from the CPT site investigations and corresponding consistency limits and other physical properties experiments, were divided into training set of 72 records and validation set of 30 records. Both (GN7) & (MEPX) software were used to apply (GP) on the available data. Four trials for each software with different chromosome lengths were performed to correlate the (Nk) factor with the clay consistency limits, water content (wc) and unit weight (γ) using training data set, then, the produced relations were tested using the validation data set. The four generated formulas using (GN7) showed accuracies ranging between 93% and 97% and coefficient of determination (R2) ranging between 0.7 and 0.9, while the other four formulas form (MEPX) showed accuracy not exceeding 95% and coefficient of determination (R2) ranging between 0.45 and 0.75.
15 experimental study for strengthening of rc rectangular columns with anchor...Ahmed Ebid
Debonding between CFRP sheets and concrete surface is one of the most important modes of failure. The common solution to
prevent this mode of failure is to extend the CFRP sheets by enough length to avoid debonding. A more advanced technique is to anchor the CFRP sheets to the concrete element using either steel or CFRP anchors. The aim of this research is to study the effect of using CFRP anchors on the capacity of concentric and eccentric RC columns. In order to achieve that goal, ten specimens of RC columns divided into two sets were tested. The first set was tested under concentric load, while the other set was tested under eccentric load. Each set had one control sample, while the other four samples were wrapped with CFRP bands. Two of the wrapped samples were anchored and the others were not. The spacing between CFRP wraps was varied between 80 and 200 mm. The results showed that the concentric and eccentric capacity of the sample increased with decreasing the spacing between CFRP bands as long as the eccentricity is small enough to cause
compression failure mode. But for samples with tension failure caused by large eccentricity, the CFRP bands have no effect on the capacity. It was also noted that anchors have no significant effect on the axial capacity of the samples
Surface or shallow compaction is one of the earliest, cheapest and commonly used techniques to improve the physical and
mechanical properties of loose soil specially for imported structural fill. It is simply rearranging of soil particles to reduce air ratios using
surface static or vibrating mechanical effort. Usually, shallow compaction procedure includes subjecting the loose soil to certain number of
compacting equipment passes to archive the accepted compaction level; this number of passes is a function of many parameters such as
type of soil, initial soil parameters, compacting equipment characteristics and thickness of soil lift. International codes, specifications and
handbooks include just guidelines about the required number of passes; accordingly, it is usually determined based on personal
experience and field trials. This research has two goals, the first is to estimate the properties improvement of certain natural surface loose
soil under certain surface compaction procedure by calculating the enhancement in soil properties after each pass and updating the soil
properties for next pass calculations. The second goal is to use the previous approach to develop set of equations to design surface
compaction procedure for imported structural fill, this includes calculating minimum compaction equipment characteristics, maximum lift
thickness and minimum number of passes to enhance certain imported fill from certain initial condition to certain final condition. The
proposed approach for the first goal was verified using case studies and showed good matches, and the developed designing equations for
surface compaction procedure were verified using case studies and showed good matches.
This research work mainly investigates the local production of 12 built up GFRP I-beams using Hand Lay-Up production method (since up-till now there is no pultrusion industry in Egypt). Overall strength characteristics of these beams will determined experimentally and compared to those manufactured by the Pultrusion process. This comparison will help to estimate to how extent the locally manufactured beams (by Hand Lay-Up technique) can be used in full permanent structures (like pultruded beams) or at least used in light and temporary structures. In order to achieve this goal, the experimental study was divided into two stages: The first stage is to manufacture GFRP plates using glass fibers and polyester. Two types of plates were produced one for flange plates and the other for web plates. These two types of plates are different in fibers orientation of different layers within the plate thickness in order to reach the possible higher tensile and flexural strength for flange plates and possible higher shear strength for web plates. Longitudinal and transverse tensile, compressive, and flexural strength for these two types of plates were experimentally determined using coupons tests. The second stage is to produce built-up GFRP I-beams using the aforementioned plates and composite angles. The overall stiffness and modes of failure of these beams were experimentally determined. The obtained results were compared with those of pultruded I-beams manufactured in the United States by pultrusion process. Also three different connecting methods for the 12 tested beams were investigated, namely: Bonding – Bolting – Bolting/Bonding connecting techniques. Of course it is expected that some local fabrication parameters (like fiber and polymer properties available in the local market, labour, temperature, polymer curing …etc) are expected to affect the properties of the fabricated beams specially that these beams are manufactured manually.
10 simple mathematical approach for granular fill Ahmed Ebid
improving soil parameters using dynamic
compaction of was intensively studied by many researchers since
1980’s. Earlier researchers depended on statistical analysis of
many case studies and soil dynamic principals to develop
empirical formula used in designing dynamic compaction
procedure. Recent researchers used different finite element
models to describe the behavior of soil under dynamic
compaction; those models varied between 1-D simple model and
up to 3-D sophisticated ones. The aim of this research is to
introduce a simple mathematical approach to simulate ground
deformations and soil parameters improvement due to dynamic
compaction. The proposed approach consists of two equations, the
1st one used to calculate the ground settlement due to one temper
drop, the 2nd one used to calculate the updated soil parameters
due to the ground settlement from the previous drop. By applying
the two equations successively, both ground settlement and soil
parameters improvement could be calculated after each tamper
drop. The proposed approach was applied on four case studies and
its results were so close to measured ones. The proposed approach
could be used in designing or testing the dynamic compaction
procedures and also in monitoring the quality of execution by
comparing the measured settlement after each drop with
calculated one.
Image compression using genetic programmingAhmed Ebid
The fast growth in digital image applications such as web sites, multimedia and even personal image archives encouraged researchers to develop advanced techniques to compress images. Many compression techniques where introduced whether reversible or not. Most of those techniques were based on statistical analysis of repetition or mathematical transforming to reduce the size of the image. This research is concerning in applying Genetic programing (GP) technique in image compression. In order to achieve that goal, a parametric study was carried out to determine the optimum combination of (GP) parameters to achieve maximum quality and compression ratio. For simplicity the study considered 256 level gray scale image. A special C++ software was developed to carry out all calculations, the compressed images was rendered using Microsoft Excel. Study results was compared with JPEG results as one of the most popular lossy compression techniques. It is concluded that using optimum (GP) parameters leads to acceptable quality (objectively and subjectively) corresponding to compression ratio ranged between 2.5 and 4.5.
optimum alternative to reduce column size considering behavior and cost impac...Ahmed Ebid
The increasing of high raise and heavy industrial construction industry causes increasing in structural columns loads and
accordingly their cross sections, on other hand; architectural and mechanical requirements limit the available spaces for
columns. Commonly, three alternatives are used to reduce column size to fit into the available space with same axial capacity,
the first is to use higher concrete strength, the second is to use composite column (enclosed or in-filled) and the third is to use
high strength steel column. In this research, a parametric study is carried out to figure out the impact of each alternative on
the structural behavior and direct cost of the project. The study is based on average materials, labor and equipment rates in
USA in 2016. Study results indicated that optimum alternative is to use higher concrete strength up to 1.4 times the concrete
strength of floors beyond this limit, composite column (enclosed or in-filled) is recommended. Finally high strength steel
column is the only alternative for very compacted columns.
Prediction of soil liquefaction using genetic programmingAhmed Ebid
DOI: 10.13140/2.1.2034.4644
In most geotechnical problems, it is too difficult to predict soil and structural behavior accurately, because of the large variation in soil parameters and the assumptions of numerical solutions. But recently many geotechnical problems are solved using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, by presenting new solutions or developing existing ones. Genetic Programming, (GP), is one of the most recently developed (AI) techniques based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) technique. In this research, GP technique is utilized to develop prediction criteria for liquefaction phenomena in cohesivless soils using collected historical records. The liquefaction formula is developed using special software written by the authors in "Visual C++" language. The accuracy of the developed formula was also compared with earlier prediction methods.
Prediction of uplift capacity using genetic programmingAhmed Ebid
DOI: 10.13140/2.1.3107.6163
In most geotechnical problems, it is too difficult to predict soil and structural behavior accurately, because of the large variation in soil parameters and the assumptions of numerical solutions. But recently many geotechnical problems are solved using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, by presenting new solutions or developing existing ones. Genetic Programming, (GP), is one of the most recently developed (AI) techniques based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) technique. In this research, GP technique is utilized to develop prediction criteria for uplift capacity of shallow foundations using collected historical records. The uplift capacity formula is developed using special software written by the authors in "Visual C++" language. The accuracy of the developed formula was also compared with earlier prediction methods.
Theoretical study for r.c. columns strengthened with gfrp with different main...Ahmed Ebid
DOI: 10.13140/2.1.3631.9041
It becomes a common practice to strength and repair reinforced concrete columns by wrapping them with GFRP sheets. The aim of this research is to develop a formula to describe the relation between the gain of strength of reinforced concrete square columns, their longitudinal reinforcement and number of warped layers of GFRP sheets. The research is based on simulating loading tests of a set of 12 reinforced concrete columns with different reinforcement ratios and different number of warped layers of GFRP sheets using ANSYS software. The outputs of the ANSYS models are verified using experimental tests results carried out by the author in earlier research. The results of the study are used to develop a proposed formula to correlate the axial capacity of the warped square RC column with its reinforcement ratio and the confining stress caused by the sheets. Values from both proposed formula design and formula of Egyptian Code of Practice (ECP) are compared with ANSYS outputs and experimental results. The final conclusion is that gained strength due to confining equals to (confining stress / Fcu)
Optimum replacement depth to control heave of swelling claysAhmed Ebid
The behavior of unsaturated swelling soils under changing of moisture content was intensively studied by many researchers since the 1950’s. Many proposed formulas and techniques were used to classify, describe and predict the swelling behavior and parameters of such type of soil. On the other hand, many techniques are used to allow structures to be founded on swelling soils without suffering any damages due to the soil heave. Replacing the swelling soil with granular mixture is one of the most famous and cheapest techniques especially in case of light structures on shallow layer of swelling soil. The aim of this research is to develop a simplified formula to estimate the heave of swelling soil considering the effect of replaced layer. The developed formula is used to estimate the required replacement depth to avoid damage due to excessive heave.
Optimum penetration depth of cantilever sheet pile walls in dry granular soil Ahmed Ebid
in Cantilevered sheet
pile walls are commonly used in shoring systems of deep excavation down to about 5.00 m. The most common design procedure for this type
of flexible retaining structures is to determine the required penetration depth for stability and then increasing the calculated penetration
depth by 20% to 40% to achieve a factor of safety of about 1.5 to 2.0. This procedure has two disadvantages; first, the procedure does not
give accurate values for penetration depth or corresponding factor of safety, second, it ignores the effect of uncertainty in the used
geotechnical parameters. The first aim of this study is to overcome those two disadvantages by introduce an alternative formula to
determine the optimum penetration depth of cantilever sheet pile walls in dry granular soil based on reliability analysis concept, while, the
second aim is to study the impact of using the optimum depth on the cost of the shoring system. The study results assure the validity of
provision of increasing the calculated penetration depth by (20% to 40%) and introduced a formula to calculate the required penetration
depth to achieve probability of failure of 0.1% and proved that using this optimum depth can reduce the direct cost of the shoring system by
5% to 10% based on internal friction angle of soil.
Estimating the economic quantities of different concrete slab typesAhmed Ebid
DOI: 10.15680/IJIRSET.2015.0405002
The economy of the structural design of reinforced concrete buildings is usually evaluated by comparing
the concrete volume per unit area and rebar weight per unit volume with certain empirical values depending on the type
of the structure and the past experience of the judging engineer. The aim of this paper is to refine those empirical values
and give that past experience the required scientific base. In order to achieve that goal, simplified methods of design
that stated in most of reinforced concrete design codes are used to figure out the required quantities of concrete and
reinforcement steel for different structural elements and types. Some reasonable assumptions are used to facilitate the
mathematical formulas to be usable and presentable. Produced formulas are accurate enough to be used in rough
estimation of concrete and rebar quantities, check quantity surveying results and evaluate the economy of the structural
design
Simplified approach to consider cracking effect on the behavior of laterally ...Ahmed Ebid
DOI: 10.15680/IJIRSET.2015.0410015
Laterally loaded pile is a famous case of soil-structure interaction problem which was intensively studied by many researchers before. The techniques used to predict the behavior of laterally loaded piles were developed with increasing of the available computational capabilities from closed mathematical formulas to finite differences technique and finally linear finite elements technique. Recently, very sophisticated 3D elasto-plastic non-linear finite element models were used to accurately predict that behavior. Unfortunately, those sophisticated models are too complicated to be used in practical design. Hence, the aim of this research is to introduce a much simpler and practical approach to predict the behavior of the laterally loaded concrete piles considering the nonlinear effect of concrete cracking. Special calculating tool based on finite elements is developed to carry out a parametric study of the behavior of a set of 24 piles with different aspect ratios, reinforcement ratios, relative stiffness and head constrains. The validity of the calculating tool is checked against case history field tests. The results of the parametric study show three different failure modes according to the flexibility of the pile. Comparing the results with the formulas of ECP (202/4) shows the matching in the ultimate lateral capacity, while the ultimate lateral deformations are about (127 to 132%) of the code prediction.
Application of risk analysis in uplift foundationAhmed Ebid
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2153.7766
The development of statistics and probability puts The expression (Probability of failure ) instead of ( Factor of safety) in most stability problems in geotechnical field, because it takes into consideration the non-uniformity of soil parameters as random variables since to obey the probability rules, which known as (Risk Analysis Theory).
So using this method to analyze the stability problems gives more accurate results than the conventional method of factor of safety.
This research is concerned with applying lhe risk analysis theory in case of uplift. foundations. The considered types of foundations are:
• Pad and chimney
• Tension piles
• Anchors
The aim of this thesis is to recommend the most suitable method and evaluate the corresponding factor of safety to predict the capacity of uplift foundation according to soil conditions and target probability of failure.
Hierarchical Digital Twin of a Naval Power SystemKerry Sado
A hierarchical digital twin of a Naval DC power system has been developed and experimentally verified. Similar to other state-of-the-art digital twins, this technology creates a digital replica of the physical system executed in real-time or faster, which can modify hardware controls. However, its advantage stems from distributing computational efforts by utilizing a hierarchical structure composed of lower-level digital twin blocks and a higher-level system digital twin. Each digital twin block is associated with a physical subsystem of the hardware and communicates with a singular system digital twin, which creates a system-level response. By extracting information from each level of the hierarchy, power system controls of the hardware were reconfigured autonomously. This hierarchical digital twin development offers several advantages over other digital twins, particularly in the field of naval power systems. The hierarchical structure allows for greater computational efficiency and scalability while the ability to autonomously reconfigure hardware controls offers increased flexibility and responsiveness. The hierarchical decomposition and models utilized were well aligned with the physical twin, as indicated by the maximum deviations between the developed digital twin hierarchy and the hardware.
Water billing management system project report.pdfKamal Acharya
Our project entitled “Water Billing Management System” aims is to generate Water bill with all the charges and penalty. Manual system that is employed is extremely laborious and quite inadequate. It only makes the process more difficult and hard.
The aim of our project is to develop a system that is meant to partially computerize the work performed in the Water Board like generating monthly Water bill, record of consuming unit of water, store record of the customer and previous unpaid record.
We used HTML/PHP as front end and MYSQL as back end for developing our project. HTML is primarily a visual design environment. We can create a android application by designing the form and that make up the user interface. Adding android application code to the form and the objects such as buttons and text boxes on them and adding any required support code in additional modular.
MySQL is free open source database that facilitates the effective management of the databases by connecting them to the software. It is a stable ,reliable and the powerful solution with the advanced features and advantages which are as follows: Data Security.MySQL is free open source database that facilitates the effective management of the databases by connecting them to the software.
HEAP SORT ILLUSTRATED WITH HEAPIFY, BUILD HEAP FOR DYNAMIC ARRAYS.
Heap sort is a comparison-based sorting technique based on Binary Heap data structure. It is similar to the selection sort where we first find the minimum element and place the minimum element at the beginning. Repeat the same process for the remaining elements.
Cosmetic shop management system project report.pdfKamal Acharya
Buying new cosmetic products is difficult. It can even be scary for those who have sensitive skin and are prone to skin trouble. The information needed to alleviate this problem is on the back of each product, but it's thought to interpret those ingredient lists unless you have a background in chemistry.
Instead of buying and hoping for the best, we can use data science to help us predict which products may be good fits for us. It includes various function programs to do the above mentioned tasks.
Data file handling has been effectively used in the program.
The automated cosmetic shop management system should deal with the automation of general workflow and administration process of the shop. The main processes of the system focus on customer's request where the system is able to search the most appropriate products and deliver it to the customers. It should help the employees to quickly identify the list of cosmetic product that have reached the minimum quantity and also keep a track of expired date for each cosmetic product. It should help the employees to find the rack number in which the product is placed.It is also Faster and more efficient way.
Literature Review Basics and Understanding Reference Management.pptxDr Ramhari Poudyal
Three-day training on academic research focuses on analytical tools at United Technical College, supported by the University Grant Commission, Nepal. 24-26 May 2024
NO1 Uk best vashikaran specialist in delhi vashikaran baba near me online vas...Amil Baba Dawood bangali
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Online aptitude test management system project report.pdfKamal Acharya
The purpose of on-line aptitude test system is to take online test in an efficient manner and no time wasting for checking the paper. The main objective of on-line aptitude test system is to efficiently evaluate the candidate thoroughly through a fully automated system that not only saves lot of time but also gives fast results. For students they give papers according to their convenience and time and there is no need of using extra thing like paper, pen etc. This can be used in educational institutions as well as in corporate world. Can be used anywhere any time as it is a web based application (user Location doesn’t matter). No restriction that examiner has to be present when the candidate takes the test.
Every time when lecturers/professors need to conduct examinations they have to sit down think about the questions and then create a whole new set of questions for each and every exam. In some cases the professor may want to give an open book online exam that is the student can take the exam any time anywhere, but the student might have to answer the questions in a limited time period. The professor may want to change the sequence of questions for every student. The problem that a student has is whenever a date for the exam is declared the student has to take it and there is no way he can take it at some other time. This project will create an interface for the examiner to create and store questions in a repository. It will also create an interface for the student to take examinations at his convenience and the questions and/or exams may be timed. Thereby creating an application which can be used by examiners and examinee’s simultaneously.
Examination System is very useful for Teachers/Professors. As in the teaching profession, you are responsible for writing question papers. In the conventional method, you write the question paper on paper, keep question papers separate from answers and all this information you have to keep in a locker to avoid unauthorized access. Using the Examination System you can create a question paper and everything will be written to a single exam file in encrypted format. You can set the General and Administrator password to avoid unauthorized access to your question paper. Every time you start the examination, the program shuffles all the questions and selects them randomly from the database, which reduces the chances of memorizing the questions.
We have compiled the most important slides from each speaker's presentation. This year’s compilation, available for free, captures the key insights and contributions shared during the DfMAy 2024 conference.
Hybrid optimization of pumped hydro system and solar- Engr. Abdul-Azeez.pdffxintegritypublishin
Advancements in technology unveil a myriad of electrical and electronic breakthroughs geared towards efficiently harnessing limited resources to meet human energy demands. The optimization of hybrid solar PV panels and pumped hydro energy supply systems plays a pivotal role in utilizing natural resources effectively. This initiative not only benefits humanity but also fosters environmental sustainability. The study investigated the design optimization of these hybrid systems, focusing on understanding solar radiation patterns, identifying geographical influences on solar radiation, formulating a mathematical model for system optimization, and determining the optimal configuration of PV panels and pumped hydro storage. Through a comparative analysis approach and eight weeks of data collection, the study addressed key research questions related to solar radiation patterns and optimal system design. The findings highlighted regions with heightened solar radiation levels, showcasing substantial potential for power generation and emphasizing the system's efficiency. Optimizing system design significantly boosted power generation, promoted renewable energy utilization, and enhanced energy storage capacity. The study underscored the benefits of optimizing hybrid solar PV panels and pumped hydro energy supply systems for sustainable energy usage. Optimizing the design of solar PV panels and pumped hydro energy supply systems as examined across diverse climatic conditions in a developing country, not only enhances power generation but also improves the integration of renewable energy sources and boosts energy storage capacities, particularly beneficial for less economically prosperous regions. Additionally, the study provides valuable insights for advancing energy research in economically viable areas. Recommendations included conducting site-specific assessments, utilizing advanced modeling tools, implementing regular maintenance protocols, and enhancing communication among system components.
KuberTENes Birthday Bash Guadalajara - K8sGPT first impressionsVictor Morales
K8sGPT is a tool that analyzes and diagnoses Kubernetes clusters. This presentation was used to share the requirements and dependencies to deploy K8sGPT in a local environment.
Harnessing WebAssembly for Real-time Stateless Streaming PipelinesChristina Lin
Traditionally, dealing with real-time data pipelines has involved significant overhead, even for straightforward tasks like data transformation or masking. However, in this talk, we’ll venture into the dynamic realm of WebAssembly (WASM) and discover how it can revolutionize the creation of stateless streaming pipelines within a Kafka (Redpanda) broker. These pipelines are adept at managing low-latency, high-data-volume scenarios.
Harnessing WebAssembly for Real-time Stateless Streaming Pipelines
17 decision support system for optimum soft clay improvement technique
1. Civil Engineering
Decision support system for optimum soft clay improvement technique
for highway construction projects
Ibrahim Mahmoud Mahdi, Ahmed M. Ebid ⇑
, Rana Khallaf
Structural Engineering and Construction Management Department, Faculty of Engineering, Future University in Egypt, New Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 30 March 2019
Revised 26 July 2019
Accepted 13 August 2019
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
DSS
VE
AHP
Soft clay improvement
Highway embankment
a b s t r a c t
Identifying a soft clay improvement strategy is a main challenging in highway construction projects due
to the various conditions involved. Hence, the objective of this paper is to present a Decision Support
System (DSS) to select the optimum soft clay improvement technique for this type of projects. Value
Engineering (VE) is integrated with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for the proposed (DSS). Using
the AHP provides a robust means of identifying the relative importance of any criteria or factors for soft
clay improvement alternatives. The scope of this study includes four of the most commonly used tech-
niques for soft clay improvement: soil replacement, pre-loading, vertical drains, and the construction
of embankments on piles. The proposed methodology was verified using four case studies of highways
under construction in northern Egypt. The results show that the proposed (DSS) successfully predicted
the optimum soft clay improvement technique in three out of the four cases.
Ó 2019 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams Uni-
versity. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
1. Introduction
Multiple challenges face construction projects in achieving the
project objectives while balancing all the constraints. Therefore,
it is crucial to explore all possible approaches that would help
reach the project objectives related to cost, time, performance,
and quality. For highway construction projects, soft clay improve-
ment is one of the main items that affect both the cost and time of
a project. This is particularly important when the highway is
founded on a surface layer of soft clay. The main target of soft clay
improvement in this case is to enhance the mechanical properties
of the existing soft soil. This enables it to support the weight of the
highway embankment and the traffic loads acting on it with
acceptable safety factors and embankment settlement as per the
project specifications. In this study, four soft clay improvement
alternative techniques are considered. One of these technique is
to replace the whole soft layer with compacted granular soil
(referred to as embankment on replacement), the second one is
to construct a granular filter on the soft soil, load it with embank-
ment load and wait until the soft layer consolidates then reshape
the distorted embankment and construct the road (referred to as
embankment with pre-loading). The third technique is similar to
the second one but adds the utilization of vertical drains (wick
drains) to speed up the consolidation process (referred to as
embankment with vertical drains). The fourth alternative, denoted
embankment on piles uses a recently developed system in which
the embankment is supported on a grid of piles connected by
two perpendicular layers of geo-grid at the ground surface. The
arching effect generated in the embankment soil and the tie action
provided by the geo-grid layers act together as virtual raft transfer-
ring the embankment loads to the grid of piles. A small cap on each
pile is used to prevent punching [31].
2. Objective
The aim of this research is to develop a decision support system
(DSS) for optimum soft clay improvement of highway sloped
embankments on soft clay during the early design phase. Value engi-
neering (VE) integrated with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and
Delphi are used to develop this assessment approach. The developed
(DSS) considered eight factors which are cost, construction duration,
constructability, sustainability, environmental impact, risk impact
and safety, technology impact, and infrastructure conflict to recom-
mend the optimum improvement technique considering all points
of view not just the cost reduction one. Also, using AHP provides a
robust tool for identifying the relative level of importance of the cri-
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.08.007
2090-4479/Ó 2019 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ibrahim.mahdi@fue.edu.eg (I.M. Mahdi), ahmed.abdelkha-
leq@fue.edu.eg (A.M. Ebid), rana.khallaf@fue.edu.eg (R. Khallaf).
Peer review under responsibility of Ain Shams University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Ain Shams Engineering Journal
journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com
Please cite this article as: I. M. Mahdi, A. M. Ebid and R. Khallaf, Decision support system for optimum soft clay improvement technique for highway con-
struction projects, Ain Shams Engineering Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.08.007
2. teria used for the selection of the optimum soft clay improvement
alternative. The following sections describe the Value Engineering,
Delphi technique, and the AHP conducted in this study. The pro-
posed (DSS) is verified using highway under-construction projects
in the north of Egypt at current market conditions.
3. Background
3.1. Value engineering
The construction industry faces numerous challenges in its effort
to achieve project objectives while maintaining project constraints.
Therefore, the optimum strategy is to study all possible approaches
that increase the value with minimum effort, cost, and time while
achieving optimal performance and quality. Value Engineering
(VE) was introduced to the construction industry during the late
nineteen fifties and has been employed worldwide for over 60 years.
Since its early beginnings, this technique has been widely applied in
construction projects [22,7,16,4,10]. VE is a systematic approach,
which aims at achieving value for money by providing all necessary
functions at the lowest cost. Chen et al. [4] classified VE as an orga-
nized application that uses both technical knowledge and common
sense to identify and eliminate unnecessary project costs and
thereby achieve value-for-money. Chavan [3] categorized VE as
one of the most appropriate and systematic techniques to improve
value in construction projects. The VE process explores con-
structability, manufacturability, and maintainability of a project at
the early stages and thereby identifies potential conflicts as well as
savings [24,17,5]. The VE process, denoted as a VE job plan, is an
organized problem-solving technique which consists of several
phases, namely, information, creativity, evaluation, development,
and proposal. The creativity phase is the most crucial phase to pro-
duce innovative ideas. This phase requires existing information
and experiential knowledge from past projects [23]. Dell’lsolla [7]
utilized his wide practical experience in the construction manage-
ment and value engineering to declare that VE should be performed
as early as possible before securing of funds, approval of services,
systems, or design to maximize the value. Potential savings from
VE applications are much greater with its early application. When
VE is applied at a later stage, increased investment is required to
implement any changes as well as more effort to withstand potential
stronger resistance to change.
Value Engineering (VE) can be viewed as a rigorous, interdisci-
plinary problem solving technique, which focuses on improving
the value of the functions that are required to accomplish the
objective of any product, process, service, or organization. The
highest performance in VE is achieved when the focus is mainly
to increase the value rather than to reduce the costs. Gudem
et al. [8] stated that implementing VE in projects can bring about
numerous benefits, such as reducing costs by 20% to 30%, enhanc-
ing operational performance by 40% to 50%, and upgrading product
quality by 30% to 50%. The application of VE in this research is lim-
ited to the determination of the optimum technique to improve
soft clay layers underlying the highway sloped embankment of
highway projects during the conceptual design phase.
Value study generally involves three stages: (i) pre-workshop
(preparation); (ii) workshop (execution of the six-phase job Plan);
and (iii) post-workshop (documentation and implementation)
[28]. The most crucial phases in the VE methodology are the func-
tional analysis, the creativity in finding alternatives, and the eval-
uation process.
3.2. Decision support systems
Decision support systems such as multi-criteria decision-
making (MCDM) are created to channel expert judgment and form
educated opinions to make decisions. The objective of an MCDM is
to structure a problem and identify and evaluate the multiple cri-
teria available. These techniques have been used in construction
management research in areas such as highway management, pro-
ject delivery methods, and risk identification and ranking
[15,32,14,13]. However, no previous research has proposed a DSS
for soil improvement techniques. In this paper, the selected MCDM
technique is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).
3.3. Delphi technique
The Delphi technique is a tool used to collect data and achieve
consensus on an issue. An advantage of this methodology is that it
does not require all experts to be physically located in one place,
which makes it easier to identify experts without any geographic
constraints. It also eliminates biases since all experts provide input
individually and are not swayed by group dynamics. Multiple
rounds are conducted to achieve consensus between participants
to facilitate decision-making. Hallowell and Gambatese [9]
reported that usually 1 to 3 rounds are conducted in a study, which
mainly depends on the presence of consensus or dissent in the
results of each round. It has been widely used in construction man-
agement research for reporting and decision-making among other
uses [21,29,13].
3.4. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP)
It was developed by Saaty [26–27]. The AHP is used to calculate
the relative importance and weighting of multiple alternatives and
consists of the following steps: (i) creating a hierarchical arrange-
ment of criteria (goals); (ii) performing pair-wise comparison of
criteria and alternatives in the comparison matrix using a proper
scale; (iii) pair-wise evaluation of elements in the hierarchy (goals,
criteria (sub-criteria) and alternatives); and (iv) calculation of the
maximal eigenvectors (kmax) and the consistency index
CI ¼ kmaxÀn
nÀ1
 Ã
. The consistency of the decision is obtained with con-
sistency ratio CR. If in the comparison matrix CR is less than 0.10,
then the estimated relative importance of the criteria (priority of
the alternative) is deemed acceptable.
3.5. Soft clay improvement techniques for highway projects
3.5.1. Embankments on soil replacement
This alternative is based on replacing the entire top soft layer
with well-compacted granular soil. The replacement layer should
be extended horizontally beyond the toe of the slope from both
sides at a distance equal to its thickness to ensure that the dissi-
pated embankment load will be contained within the replacement
layer, as shown in Fig. 1a. It is a simple technique to improve the
soil strength beneath the embankment utilizing the same kind of
labor and equipment used for the construction of the embankment.
This technique may be suitable for top soft layers up to 3.0 m thick,
but it is uneconomical for thicker layers.
3.5.2. Embankments with pre-loading
In this technique, the soil beneath the embankment is improved
by using the weight of the embankment itself as pre-loading on the
top soft layer. The soft soil tends to consolidate under loading and
the excess water dissipates into the adjacent permeable layers.
However, consolidation is a very slow process, which may need
weeks or even months to achieve the desired effect depending
on the properties and the thickness of the soft layer. Because of
that, it is a common practice to use a granular filter on the top of
the soft layer to speed up the consolidation process, as shown in
Fig. 1b. The thickness of this filter is designed to ensure that the
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3. volume of the voids between the particles is large enough to
absorb the excess water from the consolidating soft layer. It is a
common practice to use a geotextile layer below the embankment
to act as a filter that allows water to pass through and prevents soil
particles from moving. In addition, two perpendicular layers of
geo-grid are commonly used below the embankment to increase
the global stability and minimize the differential settlement
caused by consolidation (Sadok et al. [25]).
3.5.3. Embankments with vertical drains
This technique is commonly used for thicker soft-top layers
(>9.0 m). It uses the same concept of consolidation described pre-
viously with one additional enhancement. Instead of waiting for
the water to flow through the soft layer to the top or bottom sur-
face, which may take a considerable amount of time, a fast track
vertical path is provided by using vertical sand drains or vertical
wick drains to direct the water from the top filter layer down to
the permeable bottom layer (refer to Fig. 1c). This system consid-
erably speeds up the consolidation. The down side is that sand
drains cost almost as much as piles, while wick drains need special
equipment and highly skilled labor to install [19]. Like pre-loading
technique, two layers of geo-grid and one layer of geotextile are
used below the embankment.
3.5.4. Embankments on piles
This technique avoids loading the top soft layer altogether.
Instead, the loads from the embankment are transferred down to
the supporting strata using piles. To achieve this goal without
using a concrete raft, a combination of arching action in embank-
ment soil and tie action in geo-grid layers is utilized to form a
structural system that can transfer the embankment loads to the
piles, as shown in Fig. 1d. This mechanism is based on dividing
the embankment loads into three parts. The first part contains
the soil in and above the arching zone and is transferred directly
to the piles by arching action. The second and third parts consist
of the soil below the arching zone. The second part is transferred
to the piles through the geo-grid while the third part is supported
directly on the soft soil layer and causes it to settle [30]. In order to
minimize the third part, van Eekelen [30] recommends that the
spacing between piles be kept at less than 2.5 m and that the min-
imum embankment height to be equal to 0.66 times the spacing.
4. Methodology
4.1. Estimating cost and construction duration for each alternative
In order to estimate the cost and duration (for construction) of
each alternative, structural design must be carried out to deter-
mine the dimensions, specifications, and quantities of materials
used. The technical bases of this structural design are described
for each alternative in Appendix A.
4.2. Development of the decision support system (DSS) for optimum
soft clay improvement technique of sloped embankments
Selecting the optimum technique depends on many factors such
as the soft layer thickness, embankment height, existing highway
constraints, as well as the characteristics of soft clay improvement
technique. In this study, eight factors are considered to identify the
Fig. 1. Soft clay improvement techniques: (a) Replacement, (b) Pre-loading, (c) Vertical drains and (d) Embankment on piles.
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4. optimum soft clay improvement alternative. These factors are: (1)
cost; (2) construction duration; (3) constructability; (4) sustain-
ability; (5) environmental impact; (6) risk impact and safety; (7)
technology impact; and (8) infrastructure conflict. These eight fac-
tors are evaluated and ranked using the Delphi technique.
The DSS that combines AHP and Delphi for soft clay improve-
ment alternatives (SIA) with respect to all eight evaluation factors
were conducted in one excel sheet for ease of use. The output of
this (DSS) is relative weights (or scores) of each alternative for a
certain combination of embankment height and thickness of the
soft clay layer considering all eight evaluation factors. The alterna-
tive with the highest weight (score) is the optimum choice for that
combination.
5. Applying the developed (DDS) on case of Egypt at present
conditions
The proposed methodology was applied to highway construc-
tion projects in Egypt considering the present conditions such as
material prices, labor productivity and equipment availability.
The details of the calculations are presented in the following
sections.
5.1. Estimating cost and construction duration for each alternative
Quantities of each alternative were calculated using
Eqs. (1)–(17) (see appendix) for embankment heights from 1 m
to 12 m and using an embankment length equal to 100 m and
thicknesses of the soft clay layer ranging from 1 m to 9 m. Hence,
the cost and duration for each case were calculated using the aver-
age current prices and productivity in the Egyptian market, which
are illustrated in Table 1. Those prices were collected from BOQ &
Specifications department of (NECB) consultancy firm.
Based on the calculated values, the relative weights for both the
cost and the duration for each alternative were calculated for each
combination of embankment height and thickness of clay layer.
Tables 2 and 3 show the calculated weights for each alternative.
Sample of the calculations is presented in Appendix B.
5.2. Identifying the relative weights of the factors using the Delphi
technique
Eight Egyptian highway construction experts were involved in
this process with the following characteristics: two highway con-
sultant engineers with an experience of more than 20 years, two
heads of technical office of highway construction companies with
an experience of more than 15 years, two senior highway design
engineers with an experience of more than 10 years, and two fac-
ulty staff members at universities (one specialized in soil mechan-
ics and the other specialized in construction management) with an
experience of more than 20 years each. The experts were asked to
assess the four soft clay improvement techniques in terms of the
eight factors considered. These factors are: cost, construction dura-
tion, constructability, sustainability, environmental impact, risk
Table 1
Considered unit price, number of crew, and crew productivity.
Item Unit Cost (LE)/Unit Crew productivity (/month) No. of crew Total productivity (/month)
Pavement (m2
) 300 1200 2 2400
road base (m3
) 100 4500 2 9000
Pitching (m2
) 150 125 6 750
Embankment (m3
) 200 4000 6 24,000
Replace./Filter (m3
) 250 2000 6 12,000
Wick drain (m) 100 12,000 1 12,000
Geo-grid (m2
) 100 7500 1 7500
Pile (m3
) 8000 2500 1 2500
Indirect cost (/month) 200,000
Table 2
Samples of relative weights of soft clay improvement alternatives with respect to the cost factor.
Embankment height (m)
4 m 8 m 12 m
Alternative Soft clay thick.
3 m 6 m 9 m 3 m 6 m 9 m 3 m 6 m 9 m
Embankment on Replacement 87% 64% 48% 90% 71% 59% 91% 76% 64%
Embankment with Pre-Loading 99% 85% 65% 100% 93% 82% 100% 96% 88%
Embankment with VL. drains 100% 99% 93% 99% 100% 100% 99% 100% 100%
Embankment on piles 90% 100% 100% 57% 64% 62% 39% 43% 44%
Table 3
Samples of relative weights of soft clay improvement alternatives with respect to the time factor.
Embankment height (m)
4 m 8 m 12 m
Alternative Soft clay thick.
3 m 6 m 9 m 3 m 6 m 9 m 3 m 6 m 9 m
Embankment on Replacement 100% 85% 70% 100% 93% 79% 100% 100% 87%
Embankment with Pre-Loading 64% 35% 19% 73% 48% 29% 78% 60% 39%
Embankment with VL. drains 79% 70% 61% 83% 80% 73% 85% 89% 82%
Embankment on piles 95% 100% 100% 91% 100% 100% 86% 100% 100%
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5. impact and safety, technology impact, and infrastructure conflict.
After collecting and analyzing the results, they were sent to the
experts for a second round. The results received showed some dis-
sent so a third round was necessary. The results of applying the
Delphi method for the considered eight factors are illustrated in
Table 4. Sample of the calculations is presented in Appendix B.
5.3. Development of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) model
The AHP process was used as described in the previous section to
estimate the relative weights of soft clay improvement alternatives
with respect to six of the eight evaluation factors: constructability,
sustainability, environmental impact, risk impact and safety, tech-
nology impact, and infrastructure conflict. The remaining factors
(cost and duration) were calculated depending on the respective
characteristics of each alternative since quantitative data could be
calculated for both factors. The results of the AHP are summarized
in Table 5. Sample of the calculations is presented in Appendix B.
5.4. Mapping the optimum improvement technique using the
developed (DSS)
Combining relative weights of each alternative with respect to
cost and duration with those of the remaining evaluating factors
and triangulating them using the results of the Delphi methodol-
ogy for each combination of embankment height and soft clay
layer thickness gives a clear map for the optimum choice of soft
clay improvement for any combination. This map is illustrated in
Table 6 and can be used by researchers or practitioners to deter-
mine the optimum method to choose in case of similar conditions
to those in Egypt.
5.5. Varifiing the optimum improvement technique map
The (DSS) optimum choices shown in Table 7 were selected
directly from Table 6 based on embankment height and thickness
of soft clay layer and verified using case studies of highway pro-
jects under-construction in Northern Egypt where soft clay layers
are commonly encountered. (NECB) was the contractor’s consul-
tant in the following four case studies:
(i) 30 June highway – Port Said; it is a new strategic highway
passes in the soft clay at Suez Canal zone. The embankment
at the considered section was 6.0 height (at crossing tunnel)
and was located on 32.0 to 35.0 m thick soft clay, the soil
Table 4
Relative weights of evaluation factors using Del-
phi method.
Evaluation factors Relative weight
Cost 41.5%
Construction duration 23.7%
Constructability 7.6%
sustainability 4.2%
Environmental impact 5.1%
Risk impact and safety 5.9%
Technology impact 4.2%
Infrastructure conflict 7.6%
Table 5
Relative weights of soft clay improvement alternatives with respect to evaluation factors.
Soft clay improvement alternative Constructability Sustainability Environmental Risk and Safety Technology Infrastructure
Alt.1 Embankment on Replacement 32% 32% 12% 32% 16% 30%
Alt.2 Embankment with Pre-Loading 38% 14% 34% 38% 14% 40%
Alt.3 Embankment with VL. drains 12% 16% 33% 12% 36% 12%
Alt.4 Embankment on piles 18% 38% 21% 18% 34% 18%
Table 6
Optimum soft clay improvement alternatives for different embankment heights and soft layer thickness.
REP: Embankment on replacement.
PRE: Embankment with pre-loading.
VL.: Embankment with vertical drains.
PILE: Embankment on piles.
Table 7
Case study results.
Project Embankment
height (m)
Soft clay
thickness (m)
Actual Soil
improvement technique used
(DSS) Soil
improvement technique
30 June highway – Port Said (14 + 400 to 21 + 450) 6.0 >30 VL. VL.
Port Said-Damietta highway At Ashtom El-Gamil City 4.0 >30 PILE PILE
Banha-El Mansoura highway At Kafr-Shokr (45 + 500) 5.5 9.0 REP. PILE
Zagazeg – Elsemballawen highway (19 + 800 to 21 + 400) 5.0–8.0 2.0–4.5 REP. REP.
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6. report suggested both pre-loading and vertical drains tech-
niques to improve the soft layer and the contractors (DETAC
Co. & Misr Delta Co.) chose the vertical drains techniques.
(ii) Port Said-Damietta highway; the location was at the approach
of Ashtom-Elgamil bridge near Port-Said. Embankment
height was 4.0 m and rested on 26.0 m of soft clay. Both con-
sultant and contractor (EL-Safa Co.) agreed to use piles option.
(iii) Banha-El Mansoura highway; the considered zone was the
approach of new bridge at Kafr-Shokr village, approach
height was 5.5 m and rested on 9.0 m of soft clay. Both
replacement and piles techniques were suggested in the soil
report and the contractor (SAMCO) chose the replacement
alternative.
(iv) Zagazeg – Elsemballawen highway, this project aims to dou-
ble the width of the existing highway, the embankment
height was varied between 5.0 m in typical sections and
8.0 m at crossing tunnels, that soft clay layer thickness was
about 2.0 to 4.5 m and the contractor was El-Salam Interna-
tional Co. which carried out the recommended replacement
layer as per soil report.
Case studies locations are shown in Fig. 2. Real recommended
improvement techniques were collected by the authors from their
consulting work. Verification results shows good matching between
the actual chosen soft clay improvement technique and the pro-
posed optimum technique calculated by the (DSS). The improve-
ment technique recommended in real-life matched the technique
calculated using the (DSS) in three out of four of the projects.
6. Verification results and discussion
Table 6 summarized the results of applying the developed (DSS)
considering the present conditions in Egypt. It covers all combina-
tions of soft clay thickness between (1.0 to 9.0 m) and embank-
ment height between (3.0–12.0 m). This mapping leads to the
following findings:
For thin soft soil layers (3.0–4.0 m thick), replacement is the
optimum choice regardless of embankment height. This makes
sense because it eliminates any negative impact of soft soil lay-
ers at a reasonable cost and with little impact on time and
constructability.
For soft clay layers thicker than 4.0 m, the embankment height
has a greater significance on deciding the optimum soft clay
improvement technique. In case of lower embankment heights
(up to 5 m), embankment on piles technique is the most suit-
able choice. This result is reasonable because the relatively
lightweight embankment significantly reduces the cost of piles.
On the other hand, for thicker embankments (more than 5 m),
the best choice for soft clay improvement is the vertical drains
technique. This result is logical because this technique is much
cheaper than piles and a noticeable reduction in indirect cost is
also realized by avoiding the longer construction duration
required for a piled alternative.
Embankment with pre-loading is the optimum choice for a lim-
ited range of conditions. For thicknesses of the soft clay layer in
the 3.0–4.0 m range and embankment heights of more than
9.0 m, this technique is suitable. This is because the relatively
long time required to construct the high embankment is suffi-
cient to consolidate the relatively thin soft clay layer, which
minimizes the indirect cost of the project.
It should be noted that these findings are based on the relative
weights, prices, and rates of productivity that are used in the DSS.
This makes the findings valid for highway construction projects in
Egypt in the current (2018) market conditions and the boundaries
between alternatives will shift with changes in the weights and
market conditions.
Fig. 2. Locations of case studies in north of Egypt.
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7. 7. Conclusions
The conclusions of this research could be summarized as
follows:
Using the (AHP) along with the Delphi technique allowed cap-
turing tacit and implicit knowledge through the use of a combi-
nation of calculations and expert opinion.
The developed (DSS) needs surveying for market prices and
expert opinions to be tuned for certain country/region and cer-
tain market conditions
Applying the tuned (DSS) on a range of soft clay thicknesses in
combined with a range of embankment heights produces a map
for the optimum improving technique.
The generated map of optimum improving technique is accu-
rate only for the considered country/region and market
conditions
The optimum improving technique could be selected directly
from the generated map based on thickness of soft clay and
embankment height without any farther calculations of cost
and time because they are already estimated for each combina-
tion during generating the map.
The tuned (DSS) for Egypt in current market conditions was suc-
cessfully applied and verified using four highway construction
projects.
This research was concerned in sloped embankments only
where is no restriction on bottom embankment width. For farther
studies, the same (DSS) technique could be used select the opti-
mum retaining system for restricted sites highway projects.
Appendix A. (Technical bases for geotechnical design)
Generally, the design of the highway embankment itself does
not depend on the soft clay improvement technique as long as
the minimum embankment height required in the piled technique
is observed. Hence, this part of design is common for all alterna-
tives. The compacted soil of embankment is usually specified as
non-plastic granular soil (Class A-1 A-2) according to the
AASHTO classification [20]. The safe embankment side slope
depends on the unit weight of the soil and its shear strength
parameters. Generally for the previously mentioned AASHTO
classes, the unit weight ranges from 1.8 to 2.2 t/m3
, the angle of
internal friction ranges between 36° and 40°, and cohesion
strength ranges between 0.0 and 5.0 t/m2
, Bowles [1]. Accordingly,
the side slope ranges between 2V:3H and 1V:2H depending on soil
type and embankment height.
Side slopes must be protected against erosion; usually 40 cm
thick pitching or 15 to 20 cm lean concrete is used [2]. Road base
and pavement are constructed on the top surface of the embank-
ment. The base layer is usually built of crushed stone with depth
depending on the structural design of the roadway pavement. Traf-
fic load on the road are provided by applicable design code but may
be approximately taken as 2.0 t/m2
[12].
Common values of pavement layers and embankment soil
parameters were considered in this study. These parameters are
as follows: (i) thickness of base layer = 0.35 m; (ii) thickness of
asphalt pavement = 0.15 m; (iii) unit weight = 2.0 t/m3
; (iv) angle
of internal friction = 38°; and no cohesion (Yang 2004). Based on
the previous parameters, in order to achieve an acceptable safety
factor of 1.5 against slope failure, the side slope angle should not
exceed 27.5°, which is equivalent to a slope of (1V:2H) [6].
Considering a 1.0 m width sidewalk on each side of the roadway
and a side slope protected with 0.4 m thick pitching with 1.0 m
width flat toe at top and bottom of slope. Hence, for an embank-
ment with a top width (B top), length (L embankment), slope
height (H slope), and replacement thickness (H rep.), the following
quantities may be calculated as follows:
Pavement area ðm2
Þ
¼ ðBtop À 2:0ÞL embankment ð1Þ
Base layer volume ðm3
Þ
¼ 0:35  B top  L embankment ð2Þ
Embankmentvolume ðm3
Þ
¼ L embankment  H slope ðB top þ 2 H Þ ð3Þ
Slope pitching area ðm2
Þ
¼ ð4:5 H slope þ 4:0Þ:L embankment ð4Þ
Required land area ðm2
Þ
¼ ðB top þ 4 H slope þ 2 H repÞ:L embankment ð5Þ
In addition to these quantities that are common to all alterna-
tives, additional quantities should be calculated based on the
specific soft clay improvement technique as shown in the follow-
ing section.
A. Embankment on soil replacement
Volume of replacement ðm3
Þ
¼ ðRequired land areaÞ Â ðH repÞ ð6Þ
B. Embankment with pre-loading
Filter thickness ðmÞ ¼ H clay=6 ð7Þ
Consolidation time ðmonthÞ ¼ H clay
2
=3 ð8Þ
Geotextile area ðm2
Þ ¼ Required land area ð9Þ
Geo À grid area ðm2
Þ ¼ 2 Â Required land area ð10Þ
C. Embankment with vertical drains
Total wick drain length mð Þ
¼ 0:25 Required land areað Þ Á H clay þ Hrep:ð Þ ð11Þ
Consolidation time ðmonthÞ ¼ H clay=3 ð12Þ
D. Embankment on piles
In order to estimate the quantities parametrically, the ultimate
pile capacity was estimated based on standard penetration test
values (N30),[18]. Considering (N30) for the dense granular soil
equals to 50, bearing strength reduction factor for board piles
equals to 7, and safety factor equals 2.0, the allowable working
load of pile with diameter (D) and stock length (L stock) could be
calculated as follows:
PilecapacityðtonÞ ¼ 133D2
þ 15:7D Â Lstock ð13Þ
Maximum pile load could be calculated as follows considering
spacing of 2.5 Â 2.5 m:
Pile Load ðtonÞ
¼ 2:5 Â 2:5 Â 2:0 Â H slope ¼ 13:5 H slope ð14Þ
From Eqs. (13) and (14), and assuming that (D ¼ Hslope=18),
then stock length (L stock) equals (0.4 H slope) and total pile length
equals to (L stock + H clay):
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8. Pile volume ðm3
Þ ¼ H slope
2
Á ðL stock þ H clayÞ=400 ð15Þ
Total volume of piles ðm3
Þ
¼ Pile volume Á Required land area=6:25 ð16Þ
Regarding the two layers of geo-grid, they area could be calcu-
lated considering 50% lap as follows:
Geo À grid Area ðm2
Þ ¼ 1:5 Â 2 Â Required land area ð17Þ
Eqs. (1)–(17) were used to calculate the quantities and duration
needed for each alternative. The Application section provides the
steps taken and a discussion of the steps for the proposed DSS.
Appendix B. (Sample of DSS Calculations)
A. Sample of BOQ Calculations:
The BOQ of different alternatives for embankment length,
height and top width of 100.0 m, 4.0 m and 20.0 m respectively
with side slopes of 1V:2H rested on 3.0 m thick soft clay layer
could be calculated as follows:
Pavement area (m2
)
= ð20:0 À 2:0Þ Â 100:0 = 1800
Base layer volume (m3
)
= 0:35 Â 20:0 Â 100:0 = 700
Embankment volume (m3
)
= 100:0 Â 4:0 Â ð20 þ 2 Â 4:0Þ = 11200
Slope pitching area (m2
)
= ð4:5 Â 4:0 þ 4:0Þ Â 100:0 = 2200
For embankment on soil replaceement (H rep = 3.0 m)
Required land area (m2
)
= ð20:0 þ 4 Â 4:0 þ 2 Â 3:0Þ Â 100 = 4200
Volume of replacement (m3
)
= 4200 Â 3:0 = 12600
For embankment with pre-loading (H rep = 0.5 m)
Filter thickness (m) = 3:0=6 = 0.5
Required land area (m2
)
= ð20:0 þ 4 Â 4:0 þ 2 Â 0:5Þ Â 100 = 3700
Filter volume (m3
) = 3700 Â 0:5 = 1850
Consolidation time (month) = 3:02
=3 = 3.0
Geotextile area (m2
) = 3700 = 3700
Geo-grid area (m2
) = 2 Â 3700 = 7400
For embankment with vertical drains (H rep = 0.5 m)
Filter thickness (m) = 3:0=6 = 0.5
Required land area (m2
)
= ð20:0 þ 4 Â 4:0 þ 2 Â 0:5Þ Â 100 = 3700
Filter volume (m3
) = 3700 Â 0:5 = 1850
Geotextile area (m2
) = 3700 = 3700
Geo-grid area (m2
) = 2 Â 3700 = 7400
Consolidation time (month) = 3:0=3 = 1.0
Total wick drain length (m)
= 0:25 Â 3700 Â ð3:0 þ 0:5Þ = 3238
For embankment on piles (H rep = 0.0 m)
Required land area (m2
)
= ð20:0 þ 4 Â 4:0 þ 2 Â 0:0Þ Â 100 = 3600
Pile Diameter (D) (m) = 4:0=18 = 0.22
Stock length (L stock) (m) = 0:4 Â 4:0 = 1.60
Pile length (m) =Max½10mOrð1:6 þ 3:0ÞŠ = 10.0
Pile volume (m3
) = 0:785 Â 0:222
 10:0 = 0.38
Total volume of piles (m3
) = 0:38 Â 3600=6:25 = 219
Geo-grid Area (m2
) = 1:5 Â 2 Â 3600 = 10800
B. Sample of Cost and Time Calculations:
Time and cost for the previously calculated BOQ could be calcu-
lated using the unit prices and productivity rates listed in Table 1
as follows:
For embankment on soil replacement
Item Cost (LE) Time (month)
Pavement 1800 Â 300
= 540 000
1800/2400
= 0.75
Base layer 700 Â 100
= 70 000
700/9000
= 0.08
Embankment 11200 Â 200
= 2 240 000
11 200/24 000
= 0.47
Slope pitching 2200 Â 150
= 330 000
2200/750
= 2.93
Replacement 12600 Â 250
= 3 150 000
12 600/12 000
= 1.05
Site preparation – 4200/4200
= 1.0
Indirect cost 6.3 Â 200 000
= 1 260 000
–
Total 7 590 000 6.30
For embankment with pre-loading
Item Cost (LE) Time (month)
Pavement 1800 Â 300
= 540 000
1800/2400
= 0.75
Base layer 700 Â 100
= 70 000
700/9000
= 0.08
Embankment 11 200 Â 200
= 2 240 000
11 200/24 000
= 0.47
Slope pitching 2200 Â 150
= 330 000
2200/750
= 2.93
Filter 1850 Â 250
= 462 500
1850/12 000
= 0.15
Site preparation – 3700/4200
= 0.88
Geotextile 3700 Â 100
= 370 000
3700/7500
= 0.50
Geo-grid 7400 Â 100
= 740 000
7400/7500
= 1.00
Consolidation time – 3.0
Indirect cost 9.76 Â 200 000
= 1 952 000
–
Total 6 704 500 9.76
For embankment with vertical drains
Item Cost (LE) Time (month)
Pavement 1800 Â 300
= 540 000
1800/2400
= 0.75
Base layer 700 Â 100
= 70 000
700/9000
= 0.08
Embankment 11 200 Â 200
= 2 240 000
11 200/24 000
= 0.47
Slope pitching 2200 Â 150
= 330 000
2200/750
= 2.93
Filter 1850 Â 250
= 462 500
1850/12 000
= 0.15
8 I.M. Mahdi et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
Please cite this article as: I. M. Mahdi, A. M. Ebid and R. Khallaf, Decision support system for optimum soft clay improvement technique for highway con-
struction projects, Ain Shams Engineering Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.08.007
9. (Sample of DSS Calculations) (continued)
Item Cost (LE) Time (month)
Site preparation – 3700/4200
= 0.88
Geotextile 3700 Â 100
= 370 000
3700/7500
= 0.50
Geo-grid 7400 Â 100
= 740 000
7400/7500
= 1.00
Consolidation time – 1.0
wick drain 3238 Â 100
= 323 800
3238/12 000
= 0.27
Indirect cost 8.0 Â 200 000
= 1 600 000
–
Total 6 676 300 8.0
For embankment on piles
Item Cost (LE) Time (month)
Pavement 1800 Â 300
= 540 000
1800/2400
= 0.75
Base layer 700 Â 100
= 70 000
700/9000
= 0.08
Embankment 11200 Â 200
= 2 240 000
11 200/24000
= 0.47
Slope pitching 2200 Â 150
= 330 000
2200/750 = 2.93
Site preparation – 3600/4200
= 0.86
Geo-grid 10800 Â 100
= 1 080 000
10 800/7500
= 1.44
Piles 219 Â 8000
= 1 752 000
219/2500
= 0.09
Indirect cost 6.6 Â 200 000
= 1 320 000
–
Total 7 332 000 6.6
C. Sample of Calculations for Alternatives Relative Weights
with Respect to Cost Time (Tables 2 and 3):
Relative weights of alternatives shown in the 1st column of
Table 2 could be calculated as the ratio between minimum cost
to alternative cost as follows:
Relative weight of Replacement alternative
= 6 676 300/7 590 000 = 0.87
Relative weight of Pre-loading alternative
= 6 676 300/6 704 500 = 0.99
Relative weight of VL. drains alternative
= 6 676 300/6 676 300 = 1.00
Relative weight of Emb. on piles alternative
= 6 676 300/7 332 000 = 0.90
Similarly, the relative weights of alternatives shown in the 1st
column of Table 3 could be calculated as the ratio between mini-
mum duration to alternative duration as follows:
Relative weight of Replacement alternative
= 6.3/6.3 = 1.00
Relative weight of Pre-loading alternative
= 6.3/9.76 = 0.64
Relative weight of VL. drains alternative
= 6.3/8.0 = 0.79
Relative weight of Emb. on piles alternative
= 6.3/6.6 = 0.95
D. Sample of Calculations for Alternatives Relative Weights
with Respect to rest of considered factors (Tables 4 and 5):
Relative weights of considered factors shown in Table 4 were
calculated by applying (AHP) on the questioner results. The 1st
request in the questioner is to evaluate the importance of consider
factor from 1 for less important to 10 for most important. In the
3rd round, the evaluations were settled and the average evaluation
for the considered factors were 9.80, 5.60, 1.80, 1.00, 1.20, 1.40,
1.00 and 1.80 for cost, construction duration, constructability,
sustainability, environmental impact, risk impact and safety,
technology impact, and infrastructure conflict respectively.
Accordingly, the relative weight of certain factor is the ratio
between its evaluations to the sum of the evaluations. For example,
the relative weight of cost is 9:8=ð9:80 þ 5:60 þ 1:80 þ 1:00þ
1:20 þ 1:40 þ 1:00 þ 1:80Þ ¼ 0:463
Similar approach was used to estimate the relative weights of
each improvement technique with respect to considered factors.
The 2nd request in the questioner is to arrange the four alterna-
tives from 1 for less favorable to 4 for most favorable alternative
with respect to each considered factor regardless cost and duration
which relative weights could be calculated from BOQ. For example,
the average evaluations of alternatives with respect to con-
structability were 3.2, 3.8, 1.2 and 1.8 for Replacement, Pre-
loading, Vertical drains and embankment on piles respectively,
hence, the relative weight of replacement alternative with respect
to constructability is 3:2=ð3:2 þ 3:8 þ 1:2 þ 1:8Þ ¼ 0:32
E. Sample of Alternative Score Calculations (Table 6):
The optimum soft clay improvement technique for certain
embankment height on a certain soft clay thickness is the alternative
with highest score. Those optimum alternatives were mapped in
Table 6 for embankment height ranged between 3.0 and 12.0 m
and soft clay thickness ranged between 1.0 and 9.0 m. The score of
each alternative is the sum of multiplied factor relative weight from
Table 4 by corresponding alternative relative weight from Tables 2, 3
and 5. For example, the scores of the four alternatives in case of 4.0 m
embankment height on 3.0 m soft clay thickness are:
Total
Similarly, the score of Pre-loading, VL. Drains and Embankment
on piles are 0.674, 0.666 and 0.678 respectively. Accordingly,
Replacement is the optimum alternative for this case.
F. Results of case study (Table 7):
The optimum improvement techniques for each of four cases in
Table 7 were selected directly from Table 6 based on the embank-
ment height and soft clay thickness.
Appendix C. (Samples for the expertise questioners)
See Fig. 3.
I.M. Mahdi et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx 9
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Ibrahim Mahmoud Mahdi is a Professor of Project
Management at the Future University in Egypt. He
received his Ph.D. from University of Southampton,
England UK. Dr. Mahdi has over 30 years of professional
experience in all project management aspects including
Planning; Cost a, Risk management and Project Control.
He has been responsible for many assignments of highly
technical projects in Egypt, Kuwait and Gulf area espe-
cially KSA and UAE. His experience includes Preparing
tender’s packages; receiving and analyzing tenders,
making consultant and contractor recommendations,
issuing, executing and administering contracts; and
finally, supervising the construction to insure quality and schedule requirements
are met Dr. Mahdi has wide work experience in education and practicing project
management.
Ahmed M. Ebid is an Assistant Professor at the Future
University in Egypt. He received his Ph.D. in soil
mechanics from Ain-Shams Uni.-Egypt 2004. He is a
consultant in both geotechnical engineering and
designing concrete structures since 2012, He published
14 researches in geotechnical engineering, soil
mechanics, repairing using FRP and optimizing the
design of concrete elements.
Rana Khallaf is an Assistant Professor at the Structural
and Construction Management Department, Faculty of
Engineering and Technology, Future University in Egypt
(FUE). Dr. Rana has over 7 years of experience working
in Egyptian and American companies in the field of
construction project management consulting. She has
also previously cofounded a Project Management Con-
sultancy, which served US-based projects. She received
her PhD in Civil Engineering (Specialization: Construc-
tion Engineering and Management) from Purdue
University in the United States. She then worked as a
Lecturer at Purdue University before joining the Future
University in Egypt. Prior to that, she received her Bachelors and Masters degrees
from Ain shams University. She is active in research and her current interests
include: Public-private partnerships, Integrated project delivery, Game theory, Risk
analysis, Disaster risk reduction, as well as other contemporary topics.
I.M. Mahdi et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx 11
Please cite this article as: I. M. Mahdi, A. M. Ebid and R. Khallaf, Decision support system for optimum soft clay improvement technique for highway con-
struction projects, Ain Shams Engineering Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.08.007